Safeguarding the Future of US Agriculture - Global Crop Diversity Trust

Rwandan women carrybags of bean seedsthrough a war-damagedgrove of banana trees.Farmers in this Westernpart of Rwanda fled thefighting and abandonedtheir crops. Genebankscan provide farmers withthe seeds they need torebuild their lives.© FAO, G. Dianavarieties. 16 QPM crops are now planted on 400,000 hectares in sub-Saharan Africaand that number could double by 2007.Crop Genebanks Healing WoundsThe conservation of genetic variation in agriculture crop species is also emergingas an important element of recovery and redevelopment following wars andnatural disasters. Most of the nations that are struggling to recover from thedevastation of military conflicts or natural disasters are relatively poor countrieswhere, for most, life still revolves around agriculture. In these countries, some ofthe most popular and productive crop varieties are “landraces,” varieties that haveresulted from generations of selective breeding by local farmers. These varieties areirreplaceable if lost. But invariably, violence, whether caused by humans or nature,takes a heavy toll on farming and can result in the destruction of seed supplies andcrop varieties that have sustained people for centuries.Genebanks have emerged as the foundation of an efficient and effective means ofjump-starting a country’s agricultural sector post-conflict or post-disaster. As theexamples that follow illustrate, they can serve as repositories for conservingindigenous seed and plant material and as resource centers that can provide seedsthat are compatible with a particular ecosystem, diet or culture.After the TsunamiThe tsunami of December 2004 ravished life, destroyed whole villages, anddamaged the coastal environments in several nations. Genebanks have sincecome to aid food production in coastal regions where soil was inundatedwith sand and salt deposited by the surging seas. Soon after the disasterstruck, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) began receivingurgent requests from Malaysia and Sri Lanka for salt tolerant varieties of rice.Thanks to its long-term commitment to cataloguing and conserving rice fromaround the world, IRRI had access to 40 different salt-tolerant varieties. Sixvarieties have already been sent to Sri Lanka and Malaysia and IRRI isworking with local farmers to either plant them immediately or use them inbreeding programs to transfer salt-tolerance to local varieties. 17Iraq and the Black Box of LifeWell before the US military’s arrival in Iraq in 2003, plant scientists depositeda duplicate of a valuable Iraqi seed collection in the Syria-basedInternational Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) forsafekeeping. The “black box” of seeds held a representative sample of Iraq’scritical crop varieties. So, although the Iraqi gene bank was later ransackedand looted, the rescued seeds were safe in Syria and will be returned to Iraqfor planting. 18 ICARDA is also providing Iraq with additional seeds—20 tonsof cereal and legume varieties carefully selected for their genetic suitabilityto Iraq’s growing conditions. 19Bringing Rice Back to CambodiaPlant varieties maintained by IRRI were instrumental in the dramatic turnaroundof Cambodian rice production, which was decimated under the ruleof the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge murdered one quarter of thepopulation, among their targets was the brain trust of the country’sSAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE OF U.S. AGRICULTURE 29